Why I Oughta...

Going to document this here on the blog, so I can track the changes with this succulent that is perched on top of the hvac unit in my office on the 64th floor.  This didn't start as *my* succulent.  Nope.  Someone on my team had one of these plants at her desk, but it wasn't getting much light.  So...she moved it to my ledge.  Having a bit of history with cultivating succulents from cut ends, I gave it a shot.  Cut off four little guys and planted them in their own pot. I paid attention to keeping them wet and after a bit, they took off.  Now the four main plants are huge and gangly.  They're laying over the sides of the little pot and even throwing off their own little buds near the base that are, just PRIME for cutting and replanting.  I spy four of five that I could cleve off and transplant to keep the succulent mojo going.  Off to Menards I go for a few little pots and some dirt.

This month's wall calendar update comes on the 2nd of the month, which is a very fast turn around time if history serves as any indication.  On the left in the Pixar calendar, we have Toy Story 2 - yep!  - #2.  And on the right is the University of Illinois Hallene Gateway.  This thing was put up in 1998 during my time on campus and has a nice little archive page that the University has put up here .  Someone, had the foresight to preserve this when they were taking down one of the original buildings and after sixty years, someone 'discovered' it and brought it back to life as a bit of a gateway to the campus on the Urbana side.   From the UIUC archive page : Dedicated October 8, 1998, on the 63rd annual meeting of University of Illinois Foundation, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was funded through the generosity of Alan M. and Phyllis Welsh Hallene, graduates of the class of 1951. As its centerpiece, the Plaza features the original sandstone portal of the New Main Universi

Welp, it looks like the festival is in town.  Over the next few days, tens of thousands of brave souls will hit these parks to take in a lot of great music and get sunburned.  We've been hearing the bass-lines warming up and testing the PA equipment all the way up on the 64th floor the past few days. and it has been fun to watch the stages unfold and the activity ramp up.  Alas...I'm no longer a festival guy and, once again, won't be in attendance. I posted a photo of the Lolla 'aftermath' here on the blog last August. But, I'm not a total went blanket.  I *do* have a history with Lollapalooza.  We went (twice, I think?) to the 'tour' version back in the Mid-1990's when it hit the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park when the Beastie Boys were involved and I was smuggling in food in the venue in my underpants.   Ah yes.  Those were the days.

Low, sporadic clouds like these make for an interesting view from my office.  Some of my favorite days are ones like this that give me the whole 'up in the clouds' feels.

For those of you keeping track of these things at home, today is Friday, May 13th.  I actually turned these over to May yesterday, so let's call it the 12th of May. On the left is Monsters, Inc.  On the right is Illini Hall.  Which....is a total mystery to me.  Having spent four years there (including the summers), I'm not sure I ever stepped foot into this place.   Looking it up on the UIUC map , it shows Illini Hall right on Wright Street, just south of Green.  Kinda across Wright from Altgeld.  The "Department of Statistics" is in there.  That *might* explain why I didn't go there... The full archives of the enthralling wall calendar tracking project (you just can't get enough, can you?!?!?) can be found here . May took 12 days in 2016.    Last year it was the 7th.  That's a +5 day jump. January took 8 days to put up the calendar . I don't think I was tracking January last year. So let's call it a wash. (+0 Days) February took 16 day

Here's what things looked like out my office window yesterday in the early am.  As a reminder, if you click here , you'll see all these posts that show what is lurking underneath those clouds. Seems that the whole cooler by the lake thing in action, right?

I turned these new calendars over from January to February early last week in the office on the 16th.  On the left is some art inspired by the 'Finding Nemo' movie.  And on the right, is the Electrical and Computer Engineering building that is pretty fancy.  And new!   Construction started in 2011 and the building was dedicated in October of 2014. From the ECE site : The ECE Building, located at 306 N. Wright St ., Urbana, is nearly twice the size of the department‘s former home, Everitt Laboratory. At 230,000 square feet, the new building is full of more than 20 lab spaces intended for student instruction and learning. These labs continue ECE ILLINOIS‘ tradition of hands-on learning, especially on cutting-edge topics like nanofabrication, optics, control, and robotics. Sounds like a pretty neat place. Here's a neat YouTube video that takes you inside the building. One thing that jumped out to me: while there are amazing labs of different sorts, there's still

It is a winter wonderland out there in Grant Park and Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park these days. Here's a photo of the same view about a month back in early January .  The sunshine sure makes a difference. I also took this photo showing more of the lake.  Check out the jagged-ness of the ice on the water.  Pretty neat to see.

Thanks to my mate Russell, I'm now the proud owner a a Pixar wall calendar that goes right along with my annual University of Illinois calendar.  I got in the office on Monday and I think these went up on Wednesday, so let's mark it as the sixth. Here's all the posts showing the epic wall calendar updates from last year . On the left is A Bug's Life art and on the right is a snow scene showing Green and Sixth Streets.  Here's a close-look of the title of the page below.  What is most interesting to me is that this 'place' is so foreign to me.  I've been gone 15 years (with mostly annual visits for Football games), but the amount of development that has taken place on Campus along Green Street is pretty amazing.

This is the view I walked in to at the office this am.  You'll see that there's plenty of snow covering Maggie Daley park on the left side, but the city crews have cleaned up the bean pretty well.  Also, as a bonus, you can barely.make.out the new City of Chicago Christmas Tree in very bottom right.  See the oval-ish ice rink on the right side next to The Bean?  Just below that is a planter with the new tree stuck in the middle of it.  If you click on the photo above, it should blow up bigger and you can make it out. Here's what this same spot looked like back on Halloween .  Much different feel, isn't it?

Peeking out the window of my office this week was a treat with the brilliant reds and oranges from the trees in Grant Park and Millenium Park.   It was less than a month ago that I posted this same view that heralded in the beginning of Autumn . You can see the other seasons that I've documented out this same view here from earlier this year starting with the gloomy early Spring with NFL DraftTown.

This morning, it *feels* like Fall has arrived.  And when I got up to my office and took a look at the lake it *looked* like Fall, too.   Lots of wind and crashing waves on the lake.  They've turned Buckingham Fountain off for the year, which is really quite depressing. There's also those weird sand-filled spots by the bandshell in Grant Park and nobody stirring in the parks almost anywhere. This marks the third season - as viewed through my office window - and chronicled this year on the blog:   Spring with NFL Draft Town , Lollapalooza in the Summer and now this post for Autumn.

 I turn back up to the office after being away for more than a week and I am greeted with the yellow grass and cleanup that lays ahead for the crew following this weekend's Lollapalooza. Doesn't look too bad.  The grass will come back. The fountain is working perfectly.  Seems like the kids didn't trash the place even though some rain came through. I've never been to this version of Lolla.  The one in Chicago.  I have, however, been to at least one of them.  I *think* two of them. When they were a touring thing that came through the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park. Based on this listing of acts , I for sure went in 1994.  That would have put me in the summer after my sophomore year.  Sounds about right.   I went with my High School crew that included Matt, Steve, Neil and Mark.  We saw the Beastie Boys which was pretty awesome. I also think we went in 1995.  Correct me if I'm wrong Matt/Neil.  But...I *think* we saw Sonic Youth that year, right?  But.

Found this guy 64 floors up when I arrived at the office this week.  Not sure what he is, but he's not afraid of heights it seems.

I took this photo late last week in my office at Aon, so it wasn't the 12th of May but more like the 7th of May that I actually realized I had to turn them over a month. Here's the post from turning them to March .  And here's the post from February where I discussed the perils of wall calendars (the whole forgetting to turn them over and what-have-you...).  Looks like I didn't post a photo of the April calendars. But, back to this month's images:  on the left in the D23 calendar you see the 65th Anniversary of the release of Cinderella in 1960 (and...if you are like me - and Nat - and are a HUGE Disney nerd who listens to Disney Podcasts, you'll know that the success of this movie and the cash it threw off to the company was the biggest driver of the creation of Disneyland!).  On the right, you see a photo of the recently renovated Alma Mater right on Wright/Green Streets.  With Graduation right here, it is a totally appropriate image. "To thy ha

This is kinda cool.  Received this note from our office services folks.  My window is going to be blacked out.  Maybe. Please be reminded that Aon Center will be displaying the letters “NFL” on the South side of the Building beginning today. In order to display the letters “NFL”, Building Engineers will need to access floors 34-78 to place black plastic on specific windows, on the South side. It is very important that the plastic remain on the windows from April 30th through May 2nd in order to properly display the image to the city and to enhance the image to the fullest extent.

Today is the day for the NFL Draft to kick off.  Compare this photo of Draft Town with Tuesday's and you'll see the closed up the big tent in the middle and they've added a bunch of accessory structures around the place. Cool stuff for Chicago.

They have much of the structures set up and are wrapping them with the white tarps this morning.   Here's where they were just a few days ago .

Just west of Buckingham Fountain you can start to see the tents going up for the NFL's DraftTown.  They've shut down the street and it appears they're just going to take the whole place over with a series of tents/structures.  Kinda neat. Here's the sketch they have on NFL.com of the final product :

Back in February, I posted about the two wall calendars I now have up in my office at the Aon Center .  Both a University of Illinois and a Disney one. It being March 11th, I thought it was instructive to note that it took until yesterday to flip both of these calendars over to March.  Can't say I didn't predict that I'd have trouble with keeping these things current. Here's what they look like:  On the left Disney is highlighting the 20th Anniversary of the opening of the Indiana Jones' Adventure in Disneyland.  On the right, the U of I has a photo (with no snow!) of Boneyard Creek up by the Engineering Quad.